Roofing slab



Dec. 31, 1929. J. M. RICHARDSON 1,741,539

ROOFING SLAB Filed Jan. 7, 1926 1NVENTOR5 I ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 51, 1929 NITED STATES PATENT forFlca I JOHN MOORE RICHARDSON, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MEN'IS, TO THE FLINTKOTE COMPANY,

TION MASSAGHUSETTS 015 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 'A CORPORA- ROOFING SLAB A lication med January 7, 1926. Serial No. 79,828.

It is an object of my invention to gain in a unitary roofing piece, the economy of coverage and ease and quickness of application hitherto characteristic only of'the style of roofing called the slab shingle. It is an object of my inve'ntion to gain this coverage with an added factor of safety.

It is a further object of my invention to secure with a unitary roofing slab, a method of laying a roof by measuring the exposures of the units.

It is finally an object of my invention to gain a new and unique series of patterns adaptable to produce on the roof designs simulating thatch.

, Other objects of my invention Will be apparent to thoselskille'd in the art from the following specification.

Individual shingle units have long been v known in the art and are cut in a wide variety of'roofing unit, and refers to a roofing unit to be laid in courses, as distinguished from roll roofing, but which unit is of the height vertically of the roof, of an individual sh ngle, and with a width with the crosswise dimension of the roof greater than that of two shingles.

With the strip, fewer nails are used per unit area. The roof can be laid much faster, and the shingles are provided with spacing features which do away with. the necessity of lining up the deck. These slab shingles, however, do not produce designs in any manner difi'erent from those obtainable with the individ al units, and to all intents and purposes the finished appearance of; the roof isthe same.

- It has been proposed, as set forth and claimed in Butterick Patent No. 1,445,991, to

make elongated strips of roofing materials approximating somewhat in size the slab shingles aforementioned, but not consisting essentially of a series of individual units joined together. The butts or exposed edges of these roofing strips are given an irregular Wavy curvature for the purpose of doing away with all regular pattern as much as possible and giving over the roof such a series of what might be termed haphazard lines as to simulate thatch. The effect is heightened on roofs properly constructed for the purpose by the device of rounding the eaves, ridges and valleys so as to give to the roof a massive appearance and doing away with any sharp edges which might conflict with a visual similarity to the uncertain outlines of a straw thatch.

' It has also been the practice in making socalled thatch roofs to provide wooden or composition shingles in regular rectangular, individual shingle sizes but with regular or irregular curved butts or exposed ends, and

'to stagger them irregularly in courses. The

roofs laid of these shingles, to give the desired effect, must be carefully planned and executed by the most skilled applicators. To achieve the irregular curvature hitherto considered necessary for thatch roofs, the applicator must manually lead the curvature of his courses irregularly up and down through the selection of particular units. This process is also laborious, and frequently, with the individually units, great care must be exercised to keep the backlap above a safe minimum and to prevent lines of juncture of the shingles coinciding upon the roof and permit-' ting leaks. With the Butterick slab of ir regular curvature mentioned. above, these difficulties are done away with, but the roof deck must be lined by hand, and the exposure calculated not from the exposed ends of the slabs, but from the tops thereof, which arefor the purpose, straight, and which'are kept in alignment. In addition, shingles with irregular curved butts are hard to cut out and the mechanism involved in their manufacture is hardto keep in order.

An irregular curvature to the butts of shingles in a course is not an absolute requisite to the production of the thatch effect, nor is the thatch effect dr 'troyed by a repetition of regular patterns in making it up, providing the pattern is correct. For that matter, seldom can the curves in a socalled thatch roof be made so irregular as to do away with any pattern whatever. I have discovered that the thatch efiect is gained by the regular butts of my novel shingles because when laid there is a preponderance of horizontal or nearly horizontal lines in the roof pattern, and, secondly, such an arrangement of lines as to avoid the effect of a regular row of vertically and horizontally aligned units in the courses. The effect of regularly arranged courses may conveniently be avoided by irregularly staggering the successive courses. This is done by offsetting the slabs 1n successive courses by fract ons. of thelr horizontal lengths other than one half. I believe that the visual similarity of my roofs to a straw thatch is achieved by these two factors, in many cases aided very greatly by the construction of the roof deck itself; and I have found it is possible to gain thatch effect through the use of a regular pattern.

For my novel roofing slab, I have constructed a roofing unit several times longer than it is wide. By the length of the unit, I mean the distance measured in the direction of the courses, or horizontally along the roof. By width, I means the distance from the butt of the shingle to the top thereof. The butt of the shingle has a regular configuration and is characterized by this regularity, together with the fact that the central portion thereof extends farther from what might be termed the body of the shingle than the side portions. By this, I am able to secure a regularit of pattern, an elongation of the design whic brings about a preponderance of horizontal and near-horizontal lines, and the running of the various lines of courses into one another so as to do away as much as possible of a feeling of distinction between the courses in the roof pattern.

Itwill be obvious that by providing regularly patterned slabs, I have also achieved a roofing unit which is fast and easy to lay, thus gaining the advantage of the so-called strip shingle which is a combination of individual units; and it will be further evident that, irrespective of the thatch feature, I have gained a new style of design in roofing unit manufacture. The tops of the shingles may be of any configuration consonant with roof safety, inasmuch as they are not used to measure exposure. They may be the reverse of the configuration of the butts, so that the units can be cut out crosswise of the sheet by a continuous process. They may if desired have a separate configuration, like the butt. so that with one roofing unit, several styles or roofing can be laid.

I desire to point out also that the extreme elongation of my roofing design permits the formation of several kinds of patterns through the expedient of shiftingthe courses slightly one against the other. 7

Finally, I desire. to point out that I may include along the lateral edges of my shingles marking devices which will permit the laying of the roof to various exposures.

I accomplish my objects by that certain construction of roofing slabs to be hereinafter more specifically claimed.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a plan View of a typical slab cut out according to my invention.

Figure 2 is a plan view of my roof laid by the use of the slabs in a regular staggering thereof in courses.

Figure 3 is a plan view of a roof laid by the use of the slabs in an irregular staggering in courses.

Figures 4 and 5 are plans .of different styles of shingles.

In cutting out my slabs, I preferably cut them out so that their long dimension lies crosswise of a piece of material coming through the machine. It will be evident that I can cut out an indefinite series of the slab-s of like shape, provided their front and back edges are parallel with any kind of a curve or point at the front edge, without loss. from the roofing sheet, except for the first and last cuts, which are inconsequential. It will also be evident that I can cut out a series of my Thus the slabs will have bodies 1, butts 2, and

backs 3, with the butts and backs preferably the same so as to use but-one knife in cutting all slabs and to effect a saving in roofing.

In laying the slabs on a roof, they will be I butted against each other, end for end, crosswise of the roof, and they will be several times longer, measured along the courses, than they will be wide, measured up and down the roof.

The ends 4 of each slab will be alike, so that alignment in courses will not present a problem to the applicator.

In Figure 2 the first course A is laid in the usual manner of any single unit shingle. The next course B is shown as staggered one third to the right, and next course C-two thirds to the right, and the fourth course D coincides with the first course in the position of the meeting ends of the slabs.

The butts of the shingles are shown as cut in three patterns either one of which may be used. In Figure 1 the butt tapers down at the sides and is flattened at the middle. In Figure 4 the butt ispointed, and in Figure 5 the butt comes to a rounded point.

v .The roofer should be instructed to begin a roof with a starting strip in the usual nian;--' ner and lay a course of shingles thereon. If he is to stagger the courses half and half, it is convenient for him to cause the longest part of the butts of superposed shingles in a course to coincide With one of the notches found along the sides .of shingles and indicated inthe drawing at 5; In thisfashion he will not find it necessary at any time to line up the roof. I k It is a safe rule in laying to instruct the roofer that he can vary the staggering in courses, provided he does not shift the meet- .ing edges of one course beyond the middle point of a course'next below it but one. The I v units are wide enough, or long enough 1ne as-' y uring with the courses, that'this free ground for variation will give any desired irregular 9 wavy line effect across the roof, Y

Thus in Figure 3 the first'course M, and

second course N, and the third course 0 are not staggered in any regular manner, yet there is no point where the meeting edges of 25 an underlying course are exposed beyond sev-' eral inches atthe most., The essential object of giving. an 'efiect other than that of a regular roof such as. built of rectangular. or pointed-slabs is at. I so tained', irrespective ofa regular method of g l layingysince the length ofthe pieces provides so long a pattern as to give a thatch-like effect even if there is a regular pattern diagonallyof the roof.

' 35 Having thus described my invention, what i I claim as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is

A roof-composed of slab shingles,-each having a symmetrical unitary configuration of 4Q the butt of polygonal downwardly convexlike configuration, each having a length equal to at-least twice the width, and laid in courses, the courses being irregularly-staggered. JOHN MOORE RICHARDSON, 

